Sunday 10 February 1666/67

(Lord’s day). Up and with my wife to church, where Mr. Mills made an unnecessary sermon upon Original Sin, neither understood by himself nor the people. Home, where Michell and his wife, and also there come Mr. Carter, my old acquaintance of Magdalene College, who hath not been here of many years. He hath spent his time in the North with the Bishop of Carlisle much. He is grown a very comely person, and of good discourse, and one that I like very much. We had much talk of our old acquaintance of the College, concerning their various fortunes; wherein, to my joy, I met not with any that have sped better than myself. After dinner he went away, and awhile after them Michell and his wife, whom I love mightily, and then I to my chamber there to my Tangier accounts, which I had let run a little behind hand, but did settle them very well to my satisfaction, but it cost me sitting up till two in the morning, and the longer by reason that our neighbour, Mrs. Turner, poor woman, did come to take her leave of us, she being to quit her house to-morrow to my Lord Bruncker, who hath used her very unhandsomely. She is going to lodgings, and do tell me very odde stories how Mrs. Williams do receive the applications of people, and hath presents, and she is the hand that receives all, while my Lord Bruncker do the business, which will shortly come to be loud talk if she continues here, I do foresee, and bring my Lord no great credit. So having done all my business, to bed.


14 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Mr. Mills made an unnecessary sermon upon Original Sin, neither understood by himself nor the people. "

Just the facts.

Bradford  •  Link

"We had much talk of our old acquaintance of the College, concerning their various fortunes; wherein, to my joy, I met not with any that have sped better than myself."

Cue for Mr. Gertz, chronicling a similar meeting of two other old Magdalene classmates, discussing Mr. Carter and that self-satisfied arriviste, Sam Pepys.

cape henry  •  Link

"...unnecessary sermon upon Original Sin..." Said Samuel Pepys, leaving a trail of apple cores behind him.

Ego Scribo  •  Link

I love Sam's sermon zingers.

cum salis grano  •  Link

"...of Magdalene College..."
Curious? was this the spelling in the diary or did Ld. Braybrooke upgrade the spelling to the more modern spelling.
Mawdlyn as spelt in Parliament, see
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

csg, you may be right: "Magdalen" is what L&M transcribe.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"We had much talk of our old acquaintance of the College, concerning their various fortunes; wherein, to my joy, I met not with any that have sped better than myself."

Why we go to college reunions.

eric  •  Link

Mawdlyn

Because that's how Magdelene is pronounced -- any language snob knows that!

Mary  •  Link

Magdalen/Magdalene/ Mawdlyn/Maudleyn

I've a feeling that we've discussed all this before.

The earlier spelling of the name was Maudleyn, and this neatly enfolded the name of Lord Audley, who re-founded the college in 1542.

The 'Magdalen' form of the name was adopted in later conformity to Biblical considerations. It is alleged that the final -e was only adopted in the 19th Century, when it was felt desirable that the Cambridge College should be easily distinguished by the postal service from the Oxford (Magdalen) college. Sounds superficially plausible but not totally convincing. The names 'Cambridge' and "Oxford' do look quite easily distinguishable from one another, after all.

As Eric notes, whatever it looks like, the name is always pronounced 'maudlin' in both cities.

cum salis grano  •  Link

Mail, the Mailman and THE Address.
The Mailman before Junk Mail could and did deliver the most unusual means of envelope wordings.
A typical version

To
Salis
Old moat
village name
Great Brittain.
and it would be delivered to Papa.

So I could fully believe that envelope addressed

Proffesor Macadamia
Magdalen
would be in the hands of Professor Macadamia the very next day at the correct College,as everyone knew Olde Macadamia.

Hence the expression
"Don't you know who I am"

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Mail, the Mailman and THE Address

"Harriet Russell decided to lay down a challenge to her postmen and women with a series of brain-teasers, and as Jonathan Brown reports, they responded ..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news…
(includes slideshow of sample puzzle envelopes)

http://www.harrietrussell.co.uk/ books envelopes

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Not quite as remarkable, but I once received a letter addressed to

Terry Foreman
Union
New York

when I was a student at Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY 10027. There is a Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Thanks, guys and Mary, for the address fun.

Second Reading

Marquess  •  Link

It is a pity that Sam did not elaborate on the clergy man's error concerning Original Sin.

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